With the rising costs and environmental concerns associated with fossil fuels, renewable energy sources have become increasingly important. The development of renewable fuel sources provides a means for reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. Accordingly, many different areas of renewable fuel research are currently being explored and developed.
With its low cost and wide availability, biomass has increasingly been emphasized as an ideal feedstock in renewable fuel research. Consequently, many different conversion processes have been developed that use biomass as a feedstock to produce useful biofuels and specialty chemicals. One of the useful products that may be derived from biomass is a liquid product commonly referred to as “bio-oil.”
A common requirement of these different conversion processes is to deliver the biomass feedstock to a conversion reactor. Conventional biomass feed systems are often mechanically unreliable and provide poor distribution of the biomass in the conversion reactor. Therefore, there is a need for an improved biomass feed system that more effectively and reliably provides biomass to the conversion reactor.